THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Sixteenth Edition

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Sixteenth Edition Chapter 2 Victimization and Criminal Behavior © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Learning Objectives 1. Describe who is likely to be victimized by crime 2. Discuss the impacts of crime on society 3. Identify the justice system’s responses to the needs of crime victims 4. Describe theories put forward to explain criminal behavior 5. Analyze crime-causation theories and apply them to different groups of offenders © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Crimes and Motivation In 2016 Uber driver Jason Dalton shot 8 people, killing six of them, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He claimed his Uber app had turned him into a puppet. Also in 2016 the Houston doctor Leonard Kibert was convicted of defrauding Medicare to the tune of $6 million. He was fined and sentenced to prison for five years. Although such high-profile crimes are far from the norm, they raise interesting questions: • Do the underlying motivations for all crimes have a common core? • Or are there very different causes for crimes, depending on which crimes are examined? © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Crime Victimization • Field of victimology emerged in 1950 s with focus on role of and impact on victim • Who Is Victimized? – Not a random process – Lifestyle-exposure theory focuses on unequal distribution of crimes and victims – Routine activities theory: convergence of elements of criminals, victims, no guardians – Women, youths, nonwhites, low-income city dwellers often at high risk © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Does Your Lifestyle Put You at Risk? Lifestyle-exposure theory posits that age, gender and income are factors in risk. Under that rubric, how would you assess your own risk of victimization? Are there people you know at more or less risk than you? © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Figure 2. 1: The Lifestyle-Exposure Model of Victimization Are any of these demographic factors more important than the others? © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Figure 2. 3: Murder Statistics on Race and Gender How do the facts in these charts match your preconceptions? © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Acquaintances and Strangers • Most violent crimes are committed by acquaintances, friends, and relatives • Women know their attacker in 60 percent of cases, and in 20 percent are attacked by intimate partners • Less so for men: 44 percent of crimes committed by strangers, 36 percent by acquaintances • Life circumstances, like where you live, can greatly increase risk of victimization © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Protecting Women How can public policy protect women in intimate relationships who are threatened with violence? © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Recurring Victimization • Repetitive victimization: individuals faced crime more than once during short period • For example, thieves identify a house easy to break into • Revictimization: repeat offenses over long time • For example, woman repeatedly beaten by boyfriend • Victim precipitation approach can reinforce stereotypes: blame the woman for not leaving © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Impact of Crime: Costs • • • Costs are wide-ranging and difficult to quantify Include economic, psychological, emotional Also costs of operating the criminal justice system Cost estimates typically in billions of dollars For example, shooting crimes in 2010: $3. 2 billion in medical expenses plus $5. 4 for lost work plus $4. 7 billion in court costs • $210 billion per year for police, courts, prisons © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Impact of Crime: Fear • Fear of crime limits freedom and creates anxieties, especially among women and elderly • In recent years about 35 percent of people fear walking in their own neighborhood • Levels of fear are differentiated based on gender, income, and place of residence • People tend to feel safer in their own neighborhoods than in their city overall • Americans’ fears about crime are higher than the actual crime rate justifies © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Table 2. 1: Percentage of Americans Who Fear Different Types of Crime (1 of 2) How do your personal fears compare with the responses listed on the chart? PERCENT RESPONDING “FREQUENTLY” OR “OCCASIONALLY” CRIMES Being the victim of identity theft 67% Your home being burglarized when you are not there 47 Having your car stolen or broken into 44 Getting mugged 34 Having a school-aged child of yours physically harmed while attending school 32 Your home being burglarized when you are there 30 © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Table 2. 1: Percentage of Americans Who Fear Different Types of Crime (2 of 2) PERCENT RESPONDING “FREQUENTLY” OR “OCCASIONALLY” CRIMES Being a victim of terrorism 30 Being sexually assaulted 22 Getting murdered 20 Being attacked while driving your car 19 Being the victim of a hate crime 17 Being assaulted or killed by a coworker or other employee while you are at work Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics (2015), Table 2. 39. 2011. © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. 6

Rights of Crime Victims in Federal Cases A common criticism has been that the criminal justice system is insensitive to the rights and needs of victims. Recent reforms include guidelines for rights in federal cases: 1. To be reasonably protected from accused 2. To have reasonable notice of court proceedings 3. Not to be excluded from court proceedings 4. To be heard at public proceedings 5. To confer with federal prosecutor 6. To have full and timely restitution 7. To have proceedings free of unreasonable delay 8. To be treated with fairness and respect © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

The Role of Victims in Crime • Victimologists recognize that victims play a role (positive or negative) in many crimes • What victim behaviors can invite crime? • In cases like leaving keys in a parked car, victims are partly to blame • In cases like resisting a mugging, victims can prevent a crime © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Causes of Crime: The Classical School Cesare Beccaria’s 1764 book challenged the prevailing “blame the devil” theory of crime and sparked classical criminology, with these tenets: • Criminal behavior is rational • People choose crime after weighing costs versus benefits • Fear of punishment keeps most people in check • Punishment should fit the crime, not the person • The criminal justice system must be predictable © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Causes of Crime: The Positivist School Positivist criminology in the mid-nineteenth century said science could reveal much about why people commit crimes and how they can be rehabilitated. Its key features: • Human behavior is controlled by physical, mental, and social factors, not by free will • Criminals are different from noncriminals • Science can be used to discover the causes of crime and to treat deviants © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Causes of Crime: Biological Explanations In the late nineteenth century Cesare Lombroso’s ideas focused on what he said were physical traits of criminals: • Certain people are born criminals with criminogenic traits— factors that cause criminal behavior. • They have primitive physical traits such as strong canine teeth, huge jaws, and high cheekbones. • These traits are acquired through heredity or through alcoholism, epilepsy, or syphilis. This focus on physical traits changed in the early twentieth century to traits that affect intelligence. More recently biological explanations have focused on factors such as genes, brain chemicals, and nutrition. © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Causes of Crime: Psychological Explanations • Early psychological explanations questioned whether criminals were “morally insane” or had a defective conscience • Psychiatrists identify psychopaths and sociopaths who can’t control impulses and feel no emotions • Policy implications of psychological explanations: – Treatment instead of punishment for people with personality disorders – Rehabilitation is difficult—especially for sex offenders © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Women and Crime In 2015, Jessica Ewing was sentenced to 45 years in prison for strangling a classmate at Virginia Tech. What theories might help us understand what motivated a seemingly successful college student to commit such an act? © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Causes of Crime: Sociological Explanations • Emile Durkheim was an early proponent of looking at the role of social conditions • Basic premise: criminals are made, not born • Social structure theories: focuses on powerless lower class living in poverty • Social process theories: criminality is normal behavior, depending on influences and learning • Social conflict theories: criminal justice system mainly a way to control the poor © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Causes of Crime: Life Course Explanations • Seek to identify factors that lead to criminal careers • Often study criminals from childhood through adulthood • Recognizes many of same factors as other causative theories but takes a broader perspective • Policy implications focus on diminishing criminal careers and supporting positive key turning points © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Crime’s Gender Gap • Theories traditionally focused on male offenders and labeled female criminals as “immoral” • Could not explain gender gap (men more likely to commit crime than women) or why women’s crimes are different from men’s • As the status of women changes, some believe that women will commit more crimes • Feminist theorists point to role of critical life events such as victimization © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Figure 2. 5: How Do the Types of Crime Committed by Men and Women Differ? What crimes have the largest gender gap? © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.

Assessing Theories of Criminality • • All theories have limitations Most contain a kernel of truth No one theory is complete Tend to focus on visible crimes and the poor, less so on upper-class or organized crime • Also still mostly focused on men • Combining ideas from different theories is necessary © 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.